


Reflections of a Meet Cute

by lookingforatardis



Category: Actor RPF, Call Me By Your Name (2017) RPF
Genre: Crema, First Meeting, M/M, One Shot, POV Third Person, Somewhere in between, it's not really angst or fluff ???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-14 20:11:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14143629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lookingforatardis/pseuds/lookingforatardis
Summary: The truth was, the moment their eyes met their fate was sealed.





	Reflections of a Meet Cute

He wasn't sure why the saying went along the lines _like puzzle pieces_ when this had felt more like dust settling, _his_ eyes pulling focus and thought until it all laid bare on the floor of the room, piano keys still echoing in his ears, years of unresolved ideas of his Oliver finally coming to a head as blue eyes and an overconfident—but slipping—smile flooded his mind. _Armie. Oliver._ They were the same in that moment, both leaving him breathless, both leaving him concerned in an instant that his summer would be more complicated than he'd wondered.

He blacked out during their first conversation. He's told later that he stumbled over words and blushed too hard, his curls getting caught in his over eager fingers and his lower lip between his teeth. He's told he brushed Armie off and sat back at the piano for a solid minute before he'd recovered enough to play again. He's not surprised, not after he sees how the summer changes everything, the sun hitting Armie—or was he Oliver that day—in such a way that Timmy would never forget. Not after he sees the way Oliver smiles when he holds out a statue's arm for a truce, not after he hears his name fervently mumbled against his neck the day when scripts dissolved before their eyes, the night when they laid together quietly while the moonlight streamed in so bright that they watched dust dance around them, connecting them, binding them to their characters until their stories were one.

The truth was, the moment their eyes met their fate was sealed.

He'd suggested a tour of Crema when he recovered, stealing glances as they walked to the bikes, fumbling too much with his balance until Armie laughed and steadied him. They'd use this moment later during filming, neither realizing it until Luca commented on the brilliance of the scene, memory flooding the both of them; Armie's hand on his shoulder, their hearts in their stomachs, breath caught in throats.

They rode until dusk, finished with a grassy area where they laid down and acknowledged their roles for the first time. They avoided eye contact out of necessity—their survival depended on not meeting eyes when their entire lives were shifting all around them, the stability they both sought only found within the other, but the eyes revealing far too much. They spoke quietly and in terms of their characters only, _Elio_ this, _Oliver_ that, until the lines didn't seem to matter. Their first meeting would establish the tension, they decided. Elio would be breathless, a little stunned but hopefully not too much, quick to walk away yet wanting to bring him in. Oliver would be confident but intimidated, eager but reserved, tired. Their eyes met as they agreed, an understanding passing between them that they weren't just talking of their characters first meeting. The oxygen surrounding them could never fill their lungs when they looked at each other like that, though they hadn't spent nearly enough time together yet to understand the depths of the other's gaze. They'd learn as Elio and Oliver did, the power such a gaze held.

Upon returning to the town, they'd wonder out loud whether to meet Luca, decided they probably should, welcomed his warm embrace when they arrived. They'd avoided his eyes at first, which of course revealed more than they ever anticipated. Like a father, he saw it all in an instant. He listened as they described their day and smiled; he saw the events like scripts, perhaps because it nearly _was_ their own script. His slight questions about the two of them ebbed away as they spoke, their eyes dancing around the room and skipping when they'd meet accidentally. He watched as their arms brushed and Armie pulled away too fast, how Timmy looked down as soon as he did. He watched as they became Elio and Oliver before his eyes, their reservations and animations coming to life in the tension forming that first night, and he knew he'd worry eventually, but embraced it temporarily.

Perhaps he should have intervened immediately.

When they parted for the night with an awkward goodnight, they lingered too long. Like Elio waiting for something more, Timmy stood paralyzed at his door. Armie waved and opened his own, one last glance, one more sigh, a click of a lock, his head against the frame. They spent half the night lost in thought, the other half caught between slumber and staring at stars, their minds already blurring lines they'd been so careful to construct on their own the weeks, months, even years before.

Then, almost like a dream, they'd wake as Elio and Oliver, and never recover.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed that! To be 100% honest, my program had this guest professor who had Armie status eyes and he asked me a question and I literally couldn't speak because his eyes were so blue. I couldn't stop thinking about how blown away Timmy must have been upon meeting Armie... so when I came home I wrote this lol
> 
> Please let me know what you think <3


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